Record-setting cold turns deadly

ATLANTA (AP) — Temperatures plunged to 6 degrees above zero in Atlanta and 6 degrees below zero at a remote weather station in the north Georgia mountains as the coldest air in years settled over the state.

Muscogee County Coroner Eddie Bryan said 51-year-old Paul Garner, who he described as homeless, was found dead outside in a vacant lot shortly before 6 a.m. Tuesday in Columbus. Bryan tells The Associated Press that Garner succumbed to hypothermia brought on by the extreme cold.

Several metro Atlanta school systems closed Tuesday. Downtown, Centennial Olympic Park officials said the cold led them to close the ice skating rink Monday evening.

One of the coldest temperatures in Georgia was minus 6, recorded shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday at the U.S. Forest Service's automated weather station near Brasstown Bald.